TY - JOUR PY - 2020// TI - Waterloo Better Beginnings as a transformative prevention project: impacts on children, parents, and the community JO - International journal of environmental research and public health A1 - Nelson, Geoffrey A1 - Hasford, Julian A1 - Zatarain, Carlos Luis A1 - Gilmer, Alexis A1 - Worton, S. Kathleen A1 - Eid, Marwa A1 - Bangash, Salma A1 - Horne, Jeremy SP - e3442 EP - e3442 VL - 17 IS - 10 N2 - Better Beginnings Waterloo (BBW) is an ecological, community-driven, prevention program for children aged 4-8 and their families. BBW was implemented in two low-income communities with high percentages of visible minorities. Data on Grade 1-2 children and their parents (the baseline comparison group) were gathered through parent interviews (n = 34) and teacher reports (n = 68) in 2015, prior to BBW programs, and in the period 2018-2019, the same data were collected through parent interviews (n = 47) and teacher reports (n = 46) for children and parents participating in programs (the BBW group). As well, qualitative, open-ended individual interviews with parents (n = 47) and two focus groups were conducted in the period 2018-2019. Children in the BBW cohort were rated by their teachers as having a significantly lower level of emotional and behavioural problems than those in the baseline sample; parents in the BBW cohort had significantly higher levels of social support than parents in the baseline cohort; BBW parents rated their communities significantly more positively than parents at baseline. The qualitative data confirmed these findings. The quantitative and qualitative short-term findings from the BBW research showed similar positive impacts to previous research on program effectiveness, thus demonstrating that the Better Beginnings model can be successfully transferred to new communities.

Language: en

LA - en SN - 1661-7827 UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17103442 ID - ref1 ER -